Why Do People Like Pixar?

I’m pretty sure we’ve all been there. The argument as to what makes Pixar such a highly praised animation studio and their movies so successful. Is it because their movies are extremely promoted? Is it because of peer pressure? Or is it because their movies are simply that good?

For quite a while, I’ve wondered about this. I absolutely love Pixar. It’s probably the only studio that has never let me down. They have movies where the plots involve toys finding their way home, a fish trying to reunite with his lost son, a group of monsters who live in an alternate dimension behind the closets, a family of superheroes with marriage problems, a robot who spends life alone on Earth after the human race left to live in space, and most recently, an old man who travels in his house to South America to fulfill his dead wife’s last wish, among several other stories.

There are tons of people that love all of those films. They are incredibly different if you look at their premises and overall storyline. If people love the studio that makes these movies, then the films must have something in common. So what is it? What makes people love Pixar so much?

Of course, we could say: “Their movies are just THAT good.” But that’s the easy answer, right?

I don’t believe this is something that can easily be explained. First we can look at the plots, arguably the most important part of anything involving fiction. Pixar’s writing in general borrows many elements from common situations, as well as previous works of fiction. This is particularly notorious in The Incredibles, where the main plot is as simple as you can imagine, to the point the film doesn’t even bother to create ultra-original super powers for the main characters. In fact, one could make a case for Elastigirl being a DC rip-off, yet people are willing to look past all that and still label the movie as one of the best films ever. Then we have plots like in Toy Story and Finding Nemo, whose premises can be summed up in probably one line, yet those films are widely loved by the audiences. To me, Monsters, Inc. and Wall-E stand out as the most creative Pixar films.

Looking at the technical aspects, well, there isn’t really much to say. Pixar’s animation is beautiful, and a lot of people would agree that they probably make the best use of CGI out of any other studio. The character movements are fluid and full of life, and the incredibly detailed settings do contribute to create a beautiful universe within each one of their films. Maybe a conclusion can be drawn here and say that people love Pixar’s film due to how they look, but that can’t be the one reason, because no matter how much eye candy a movie has, it alone isn’t a well justified reason to love a studio, at least, not in my eyes.

Let’s look at the characters. I find this aspect to be Pixar’s strongest point. If there is something that always happens to me when watching a Pixar film, is that by halfway through the film I find myself caring more for what’s going to happen to the main characters than for what’s actually going to happen. I hope that last statement made any sense.

Something that I always find amazing about Pixar films is that I don’t think I’ve never come across a main character that can be defined as somehow negative. By that I mean that they are always meant to be likable, to be sympathized with, or have an attractive personality. And even when some characters, such as Woody or Carl, can come off as jerks at some points, we know that deep down they have a nice side and that their intentions are not bad. It’s a unique charm that can’t be expressed entirely on words.

Perhaps the most notable example is Wall-E. For all scientific and natural purposes, Wall-E is not alive, meaning he doesn’t have emotions or personality. However, through brilliantly done animation, body expressions, and most notably his voice, Wall-E manages to send out a unique charm that captivates the audience. It’s not common that a robot character can achieve something like this.

Now, I’m not saying that Pixar is the be-all and end-all of the animated film industry, as I like tons of films from lots of different studios (I like Dreamworks’ Antz better than A Bug’s Life, for example), but I do believe that Pixar is a studio that knows how to make quality material in a more consistent way than most other studios. Whether you believe this to be because of the plots, the characters, or the animation, I guess it’s entirely up to you.

Maybe the answer really is that simple. Pixar’s movies are just THAT good.